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Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Last week's post about calories and beer got me to do some serious thinking about my weight. I admit that I'm about 20 pounds overweight and I've love nothing better than to lose some of my gut and drop down to a weight that I haven't been since I was 30. About a 3 weeks ago, I set out on a personal challenge to drop some weight. At my highest weight, I was about 203 pounds and about 27 pounds too heavy according to my doctor.

I'm 6 foot tall and 49 years old and not getting any younger. I've probably put on about 10 pounds since the winter holidays and simply watching what I eat isn't doing it for me. I own an exercise bike, a Wii Fit board and I've started playing tennis again. So far in the last 3 weeks I've managed to drop 7 pounds down to 196. I'm an admitted beer enthusiast and the last thing I'm going to do is give up my craft beer. So, it becomes a bit more of a challenge to get fit, drop pounds while still enjoying 1 craft beer a day (or rather, a max of 7 beers in one week).

I need some additional incentive to lose more weight and so I'm hereby declaring the 1st Great American Beer Diet Challenge. I'm setting a target date of October 11th to lose as much weight as possible by exercising, eating less food but still maintaining the right to enjoy a good craft beer each day. I'm setting my starting weight at 196 for this contest and posting a picture of my belly to show what I'm starting at.
Here's the challenge, I want anyone who wants to join the challenge to post on their own blog a starting weight, plus keep a posted weekly journal of how much you weighed, what exercise (if any) you did that day, a brief summary of what you ate and what beer you drank that day (up to 7 per week). I challenge you to lose a higher percentage of body weight than me by October 11th. Why October 11th? That's the day I head to the Great American Beer Festival in Denver to celebrate.

If you accept the challenge, please post your desire to enter the contest by posting a comment to this blog. Please leave your Name and your blog address and how much weight you think you want to lose from now until October 11th. You have until the end of this week, Saturday August 16th at 11:59pm Mountain Time to enter. If you can't post a comment then please send me an email. I will post all valid entries in a comment to this blog by Sunday, August 17th.

Those who accept the challenge must post a picture of their own belly along with your starting weight on your own blog. Then on each weekend by the end of the day on Sunday, you must post an update as to your progress.

Those who end up beating me in this contest and dropping a higher percentage body weight than me will be entered into a drawing. One person will win a nice prize - a six pack of a Colorado microbrew that will be shipped out paid by me from the good folks at Liquor Max in Loveland, Colorado. Please remember, this contest is only open to those people age 21 and over and who live in a US state where Liquor Max can legally ship beer to. If the beer can't be shipped then I'll send you $10 to spend on any local beer you want.

Of course this contest will have to be based on trust and be strictly for the fun of it. The beer is just incentive to beat me. But I want to see a picture of your belly shown before and after posted on your own blog with some indication of what the date is on the picture and how much you weighed on the start and finish date. Your official weight will begin on Sunday, August 17th. Your final weight must be recorded on Saturday, October 11th.

I'll be at the Great American Beer Festival serving beers as a volunteer on Thursday, October 9th and also as a drinker at the members only session on Saturday afternoon, October 11th. If you happen to be at the GABF this year - look me up. Hopefully I'll be noticeably slimmer by then.

The idea here is to challenge everyone to lose some weight while still being able to enjoy some fine craft beer. You shouldn't have to give up one of your favorite vices just because you want to lose weight.

So come on! I challenge you! Lose some weight along with me and beat me for a chance to win a 6-pack of Colorado microbrew from me. Either way, we'll all be better off for this effort. Just be sure your weight loss program is one that your doctor would agree to. Be safe, exercise and enjoy some beer!